Singularities in Large Deviation Functionals of Bulk-Driven Transport Models

Abstract

The large deviation functional of the density field in the weakly asymmetric exclusion process with open boundaries is studied using a combination of numerical and analytical methods. For appropriate boundary conditions and bulk drives the functional becomes non-differentiable. This happens at configurations where instead of a single history, several distinct histories of equal weight dominate their dynamical evolution. As we show, the structure of the singularities can be rather rich. We identify numerically analogues in configuration space of first order phase transition lines ending at a critical point and analogues of tricritical points. First order lines terminating at a critical point appear when there are configurations whose dynamical evolution is controlled by two distinct histories with equal weight. Tricritical point analogues emerge when there are configurations whose dynamical evolution is controlled by three distinct histories with equal weight. A numerical analysis suggests that the structure of the singularities can be described by a Landau like theory. Finally, in the limit of an infinite bulk bias we identify singularities which arise from a competition of s histories, with s arbitrary. In this case we show that all the singularities can be described by a Landau like theory.